The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)

How sad is this?

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Roger Corman has been in the movie industry for years. This movie was made in the 1950's and he is still making movies today! Typically, he does movies of lower quality and low budgets, I think his best time came in the late 70's and early 80's as during that time he made some of the coolest horror movies around. Chock full of gore and nudity, but he has not made as many of those films as of late. He was basically remaking his own films in the 90's and I cannot name anything he has done in the 2000's or beyond. During the 50's and 60's he made a wide range of films from cheap horror, to caper films and even westerns. Here he attempted a viking film and this one reminded me of those Italian Hercules films in that it features a band of warriors on a quest and then they promptly get captured and then most of the film is them trying to get away from said captors. It is not one of Corman's worst films, but definitely not his best either. A lot of the films he did during this time were full of padding, making a film that really did not have much to it and stretching it into a feature length film. Probably why he was so much better during the 80's because the padding got a lot more fun to watch in the form of nudity and such.The film features a band of viking women casting votes on whether they should head out to sea to find the missing viking guys. They end up going and they start the trip in glorious fashion losing the boats rudder right off the bat, though they could have simply turned the boat around and gone like 20ft to get it, they decide to try and proceed without it. A young man stows away with them, and soon starts flirting with one of the viking women. They end up attacked by the serpent of the title and soon they find themselves captured by a group with a leader draped in idiotic costumes who has a son that really does not seem like he belongs in the same film. They will discover their men have also been captured and are now these men's slaves! These vikings are also the most clean shaved vikings I have ever seen depicted on screen.I saw this film on Mystery Science Theater 3000, I am guessing that is how a lot of people would have seen it. That or on one of those packages of public domain films where you can get like 50 older flicks for cheap. It was a pretty good episode of the show, but not really great. Most of the good riffing came during the sea serpent attacks. I was surprised they missed a couple of jokes like the whole stowaway aspect as the boat was not a huge vessel and this guy managed to hide while one could literally see the entire boat without turning one's head.So, a typical Roger Corman film from this time period. I would not recommend watching it unless it was on MST3K as it just does not look like a film that is going to be bettered by seeing an unedited viewing. It was made in the 50's after all and Roger did not make the really cool stuff till the 70's so I think one gets a pretty good overview of this one by simply watching the episode of MST3K. The main thing that was noticeably missing was the discovery of the stowaway as one minute he is hiding under a rug and the next he is joking with the crew.

I recently wrote an impassioned comment on the merits of 2012 as representing a cinematic advance. It has been rejected from IMDb a few times now. It celebrates the exploration of the visual vocabulary over the traditional values of what is often called the story. The story in 2012 is lacking, according to several of these traditional measures.Okay. Here is a film that has those story values solidly. The only thing it is lacking is poetry in the lines. But the story itself is powerful and complex. Warriors are off, on both a spiritual quest and to provide for their partners. The women, left at home worry when they are late, so set out themselves, their own bodies on the line in a parallel spiritual/sexual quest. They know — or suspect through legend — that this involves a sea voyage through the watery lair of the vortex monster, a combination of phallic aggression and vaginal engulfing. Yes, friends, this story would be seen as deeply rooted as anything that Star Wars mined (at least initially). They do find their men. They do rescue them from the "caves." The general background is weft by some foreground fables:— an effeminate man of privilege is tested, found to be unworthy and is killed. His corpse is tossed into a decidedly less passionate vaginal orifice, together with a sex slave of notably discardable value. Meanwhile, a similarly effeminate Viking fellow accompanies the Viking women. He has been left behind by the real men. Short and meek, he is tested, found worthy and wins the tallest and most sexually selective of the Amazonians.— one of the women — "the dark one" — is treacherous. She casts the deciding vote to go on the quest to gain some advantage over her rival in the pulchritude pecking order. She indeed beds the king of the capturers and gains the upper hand for a while, increasing the plight of her countryfellows. But she is redeemed in the end, sacrificing her body so the others can be free. (This actress has a fascinating personal history that mirrors this role.)— the "king" here is more carefully crafted than a stereotype. He is costumed in the fashion of Buck Rogers' Ming, carrying a generic exoticism that cinematically evokes (at least in me) subterranean repression. He acts the part as if he is in those serials, a jailer created by fear of actually being whole.Well, anyway, the story has heft. All else is crappy: effects and other production values. Yet among Corman quickies, this is voted the absolute worst, even with this real value, this story orders of magnitude more substantial than "2012" . There seems a Northumbrian lesson here. We need to be rescued.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Considering the title and that the film was made by Roger Corman during his "quickie" days (he'd already made something like 679 other films in 1957), this film is about what you'd expect--a very low budget and silly picture. The only decent thing about the movie is the soundtrack--not bad at all. Otherwise, it's pure crap--1950s drive-in movie crap.The film begins with a bunch of scantily-clad blondes in Scandinavia pining for their lost men. Apparently the men had gone off to sea a few years earlier and never returned. So, these ladies decide to go in search of them. In real life, Viking women were amazingly tough ladies, but I just couldn't see this gaggle of skinny ladies putting up much of a rescue effort--and I turned out to be right. After almost being killed by a giant sea monster, the women wash ashore in the land of dark-haired bad actors where they are taken prisoner. There, they discover that their men are slaves to these dark-haired guys. I loved finally seeing the Viking men, as they all looked like extras from a 1960s beach movie--clean shaven, no chest hair and Troy Donahue hair---exactly like the rugged Vikings must have looked!! Eventually, the well-coiffed Vikings escape and the dark-haired jerks get theirs--the end.While there is a bit more to the plot than this, I really don't care to elaborate--it's just not that interesting or important. Instead, let's talk about the worst aspect of the film--the writing. Again and again, characters do things that make no sense at all. Why take the Viking women on a wild boar hunt? Why does the only dark-haired lady in the bunch of Vikings (a sure sign of evil) behave so wildly unpredictably as she does (I suspect really, really bad PMS)? Why does a teeny, tiny sword kill a 6000-foot long sea monster? How did the Vikings expect to keep warm wearing outfits that looked like they were left over from American-International's last caveman or jungle film? And, why didn't the writers include anything that was remotely exciting or interesting? The bottom line is that the film is just barely watchable but why bother unless you are a bad movie fan. Additionally, it seems that Corman must have quickly slapped together this film in anticipation of the soon to be released epic, THE VIKINGS, a film vastly superior in every conceivable way.

"The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent" is about this group of women. Now this group of women I'm not sure if you were informed, but they were vikings.Now these viking women, well I don't want to ruin it for you but they voyage to the waters of the great sea serpent. Why? So there would be a saga. duh In my humble opinion, I'd have to say this is the best film of all time about Viking Women going to the Water of the Sea Serpent. Can you name one other movie that better captures the intensity and brilliance of women who are vikings? Not only that but they voyage to the waters of the great sea serpent. Is there a movie about this, this revolutionary subject that could even compete with "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent?" Now this Sea Serpent, he is great! This is one of the many reasons his title is Great. If this isn't enough for you to admit that it's perhaps the greatest saga of viking women on their voyage to... (guess where?) then you have your "film-school high class" attitude on too tight.Highly recommend this if you are in need of a saga about Viking Women.I may have mentioned this but they Voyage the hell out of the Waters of the Great kick butt Sea Serpent